FSN - Day 12 - Desire

[ladyseishou]

Day 12 - 19 days until the start of NNWM




Today Nano Writer, we come to the engine that powers your story and drives it from the first page to the last. Without it, your story will flounder about until it dies - most likely by the second week of NaNoWriMo. What is this magic elixir that can keep your story alive and kicking? Well step right this way…

That’s right come a little closer so you don’t miss it. Are you ready to hear it? Well you already you know what it is - it’s why you’re here. It’s… desire. That’s right. Desire. Which means, simply stated: you want something. If you want it bad enough, you will work hard, you'll make sacrifices, even sometimes do just about anything to get "it." And if what you think you want just isn't that big a deal, you probably won't do anything much to get a hold of it - it's not worth the trouble right?

And it’s the same for your character.

That’s why it’s pretty darn important to figure out what that thing is that will drive your protagonist away from all that’s familiar and comfortable in chapter one before you begin. What’s his desire? Otherwise your hero will decide it’s not worth the bother and go back home, leaving you high and dry with a story that’s got nothing to get you to the end no matter how great things were going for you week one.

Remember your premise you wrote last week? Read it over again and make sure you've specifically called out whatever it is that your hero wants so bad that he will sacrifice his old life/his honor/perhaps even his life to obtain/do/stop someone or something.

If not, then you need to rethink your premise so that your hero’s desire is front and center.

Desire in hand, there is something more we need to get the story going. After all it’s not that exciting if all our hero had to do was ask for the prize and was handed it on a silver platter. Our readers want to know that the hero is worthy of the prize. That’s the way life is. And how best to test our hero’s resolve?

Set him up to meet and overcome a worthy rival - your antagonist. Understand too that your “antagonist” doesn’t have to be a person. Anything that stands between your hero and his heart's desire may prove your hero's worth. But make sure that whatever or whoever your antagonist is, he or it is worthy - at least equal to and perhaps a bit stronger, smarter, more determined than your protagonist. You want to keep things interesting for your reader. If the outcome seems to be a sure thing - the good guy always win, right - your story will stall out again.

Now to make things really interesting: give your hero a consequence or two if he should fail in his quest to win the prize. It’s the alligator infested waters the reader gets a peak at that piles on the excitement as our hero struggles toward his goal.

And so not to make this all about our protagonist, one last thing you might think about Nano Writer before you put your notebook away for the day: let’s give a human face to our antagonist by making a short list as to why the antagonist bothers to make things tough for our hero. It will make your story stronger and more interesting if you take some time to not only make your antagonist a strong and slightly more worthy opponent for your protagonist. Something better than “because he’s evil.” Generally speaking, no “bad guy” ever thinks he’s the bad guy in the story.


Tomorrow we’ll take a look at how we can help our hero out with his quest by granting him three wishes and you know how that usually goes right? Until then, keep writing!